MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – If there’s one thing that Minnesotan’s love to talk about, it’s the weather.

That interest in rain, snow and everything in between has helped us build our Weather Watcher network, which consists of more than 500 viewers telling WCCO what’s happening in their neighborhoods.

Twelve-year-old Baden Larson of Sartell signed up because he wants to become a meteorologist. He’s already practicing building forecasts.

Baden and dozens of others took their interest in weather one step further by visiting WCCO. They got to meet the weather team, take a personal tour of the weather center and see how the Mobile Weather Watcher works.

More importantly, they’re learning to become trained-weather spotters by the National Weather Service.

“I don’t call it a tornado unless it actually hits the ground, because it’s not really called a tornado until it hits the ground,” Larson said. “If it’s just forming, it’s just called a funnel cloud.”